But truly did He live his life. Urbino, Passenger, farewell ! I have been unable to obtain any definite information in reference to the persons commemorated in these epitaphs by Chiabrera: Francesco Ceni, Titus, Ambrosio Salinero, Roberto Dati, Lelius, Francesco Pozzobonnelli, and Balbi. Mr. W. M. Rossetti writes to me that he “ supposes all the men named by Chiabrera to be such as enjoyed a certain local and temporary reputation, which has hardly passed down to any sort of posterity, and certainly not to the ordinary English reader." Chiabrera was born at Savona on the 8th of June 1552, and educated at Rome. He entered the service of Cardinal Cornaro, married in his 50th year, lived to the age of 85, and died October 14, 1637. His poetical faculty showed itself late. "Having commenced to read the Greek writers at home, he conceived a great admiration for Pindar, and strove successfully to imitate him. He was not less happy in catching the naïve and pleasant spirit of Anacreon; his canzonetti being distinguished for their ease and elegance, while his Lettere Famigliari was the first attempt to introduce the poetical epistle into Italian Literature. He wrote also several epics, bucolics, and dramatic poems. His Opere appeared at Venice, in 6 vols., in 1768." Wordsworth says of him, in his Essay on Epitaphs, where translations of two of those Epitaphs of Chiabrera first appeared (see The Friend, February 22, 1810, and notes to The Excursion) -" His life was long, and every part of it bore appropriate fruits. Urbino, his birth-place, might be proud of him, and the passenger who was entreated to pray for his soul has a wish breathed for his welfare. The Epitaphs of Chiabrera are twenty-nine in number, and all of them, save two, upon men probably little known at this day in their own country, and scarcely at all beyond the limits of it; and the reader is generally made acquainted with the moral and intellectual excellence which distinguished them by a brief history of the course of their lives, or a selection of events and circumstances, and thus they are individualized; but in the two other instances, namely, in those of Tasso and Raphael, he enters into no particulars, but contents himself with four lines expressing one sentiment, upon the principle laid down in the former part of this discourse, when the subject of the epitaph is a man of prime note. Compare the poem Musings near Aquapendente. In reference to the places referred to in these Epitaphs of Chiabrera, it may be mentioned that Savona (Epitaphs III., IV., V., VII., VIII.) is a town in the Genovese territory; Permessus (Epitaphs v. and 1x.) a river of Bœotia, rising in Mount Helicon and flowing round it, hence sacred to the Muses; and that the fountain of Hippocrene also referred to in Epitaph v. was not far distant. Sebeto (Epitaph VII.), now cape Faro, is a Sicilian promontory.—ED. 1810 As indicated in the editorial note to the poems belonging to the year 1809, those of 1810 were mainly sonnets, suggested by the events occurring on the Continent of Europe, and the patriotic efforts of the Spaniards to resist Napoleon. I have assigned the two referring to Flamininus, entitled On a Celebrated Event in Ancient History, to the same year. They were first published in 1815, and seem to have been due to the same impulse which led Wordsworth to write the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty."-ED. "AH! WHERE IS PALAFOX? NOR PEN " NOR TONGUE Composed 1810.--Published 1815 All the sonnets of 1810 were "dedicated to Liberty." In every edition this poem had for its title the date 1810.—ED. AH! where is Palafox? Nor tongue nor pen 5 Of martyrdom, and fortitude, and right. See notes to sonnets (pp. 223 and 229).—ED. IO "IN DUE OBSERVANCE OF AN ANCIENT RITE" Composed 1810. - Published 1815 In due observance of an ancient rite, 5 In choral song; and, while the uplifted cross Uncovered to his grave: 'tis closed, her loss Uncovered to his grave. -Her piteous loss 3 C. and 1838. And joy attends upon her fortitude. Or joy returns to brighten fortitude. VOL, IV 1815. 1815. 1815. 1837. R FEELINGS OF A NOBLE BISCAYAN AT ONE OF THOSE FUNERALS, 1810 Composed 1810. - Published 1815 YET, yet, Biscayans! we must meet our Foes 5 10 ON A CELEBRATED EVENT IN ANCIENT HISTORY Composed 1810. - Published 1815 A ROMAN Master stands on Grecian ground, 1 1837. And to the Concourse of the Isthmian Games 1815. 5 |